6 ms·

Visualising data structures and algorithms through animation

317 points by pushedx 12y ago

pushedx 12y ago
If you click "Start Training" in the upper right, you will be asked a series of randomly generated questions on a topic of your choice. So far I've tried the BST training and Bitmask training. I have to say that this is the best randomly generated quiz system that I've seen. There are obviously some very smart people behind this.
- netvarun 12y ago
  Steven Halim, the person behind this, was my lecturer for the competitive programming class I took in my sophomore year. Super nice guy who is really passionate about teaching!
- peeters 12y ago
  I don't know, I think that part needs some work. Of the 10 questions on bitmask, I had 2 questions show up twice, with the same values too.
Whitespace 12y ago
Since it took me a while to figure out, here's a hint: click on the card, then click the disclosure arrow on the lower left, then click around until you see "GO" Example: http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~stevenha/visualization/sorting.html http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~stevenha/visualization/sorting.h... » Click the > in the lower left » Sort » GO
- TallboyOne 12y ago
  I gave up 3 times and eventually came here because I couldn't get it to play. That should not be this confusing.
urs2102 12y ago
This is incredible. Often times in a typical data structures class students can get have a difficult time developing intuition for things like BSTs and sorting. This is an awesome tool!
- pushedx 12y ago
  Not only that, but it covers some very useful DS/A like Binary Index Trees and Computational Geometry to which many students are never exposed.
techaddict009 12y ago
I would have seriously learn Data structures if this tutorial would have existed when I was in college. It expresses data structures and algorithms in simple yet powerful way.
bing_dai 12y ago
This is absolutely amazing.
dinkumthinkum 12y ago
This is a really nice tool, I'm surprised I had not seen this before. It is very nice; I think the word of this needs to spread more and keep it updated and add additional visualizations, particularly more advanced ones.
Borophyll 12y ago
This will be great for my Algorithms class next semester. I learn a little better when I have visuals I can correlate to an algorithm.
n1ghtmare_ 12y ago
This is just awesome! I absolutely love it! Bookmarked for life!
rodrigoavie 12y ago
Thank you again, Steven Halim!
jmcgough 12y ago
I've never been able to really grasp an algorithm without seeing a visualization or stepping through it myself - this is awesome ^^
modarts 12y ago
I think merge sort finally 'clicked' for me after watching that animation. This is an incredible learning tool.
feider 12y ago
slow hosting (from singapore?) just killed the possible experience.
iamleppert 12y ago
Awesome! I love it when people do stuff like this!
SIGALRM 12y ago
this is a really cool link, thanks for posting it!
nitishmd 12y ago
Excellent! Thank you. If this code is open sourced may be people can contribute a lot more algorithms!
bargainhunter 12y ago
This is just stunning. Bravo, sir.
stevenhalim 12y ago
Hi all, I am the initiator of this project. You can gave me bug reports or suggestions on how to improve VisuAlgo (and its online quiz mode) via stevenhalim@gmail.com. Me and my team are still actively developing this tool and will update it over time. Question banks for certain topics are not big enough so there is a small probability that you can see two random questions that are the same. This should not be true in the near future. The code is semi open actually (all HTML,CSS,JS files) are on client-side. The only hidden parts (in server-side) are the mechanism to generate random questions and to verify answers automatically and also our graph drawing database :O (you can draw your own graph for DFS/BFS/MST/SSSP/Network Flow/Matching if you haven't notice). Regarding slow host, it should not be the case in general. Yesterday NUS has network issues that slow down the Internet connection campus wide. Normally it is very fast.
- pushedx 12y ago
  I noticed that you have Google Analytics active on the site. How much traffic did HN push to your site?
alexisn811 12y ago
Holy smokes! This is nifty, I hope the project continues to live on because it really helps me understand complex topics easier.

317 points by pushedx 12y ago

If you click "Start Training" in the upper right, you will be asked a series of randomly generated questions on a topic of your choice. So far I've tried the BST training and Bitmask training. I have to say that this is the best randomly generated quiz system that I've seen. There are obviously some very smart people behind this.

netvarun 12y ago
Steven Halim, the person behind this, was my lecturer for the competitive programming class I took in my sophomore year. Super nice guy who is really passionate about teaching!
peeters 12y ago
I don't know, I think that part needs some work. Of the 10 questions on bitmask, I had 2 questions show up twice, with the same values too.

Whitespace 12y ago

Since it took me a while to figure out, here's a hint: click on the card, then click the disclosure arrow on the lower left, then click around until you see "GO" Example: http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~stevenha/visualization/sorting.html http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~stevenha/visualization/sorting.h... » Click the > in the lower left » Sort » GO

TallboyOne 12y ago
I gave up 3 times and eventually came here because I couldn't get it to play. That should not be this confusing.

urs2102 12y ago

This is incredible. Often times in a typical data structures class students can get have a difficult time developing intuition for things like BSTs and sorting. This is an awesome tool!

pushedx 12y ago
Not only that, but it covers some very useful DS/A like Binary Index Trees and Computational Geometry to which many students are never exposed.

techaddict009 12y ago

I would have seriously learn Data structures if this tutorial would have existed when I was in college. It expresses data structures and algorithms in simple yet powerful way.

bing_dai 12y ago

This is absolutely amazing.

dinkumthinkum 12y ago

This is a really nice tool, I'm surprised I had not seen this before. It is very nice; I think the word of this needs to spread more and keep it updated and add additional visualizations, particularly more advanced ones.

Borophyll 12y ago

This will be great for my Algorithms class next semester. I learn a little better when I have visuals I can correlate to an algorithm.

n1ghtmare_ 12y ago

This is just awesome! I absolutely love it! Bookmarked for life!

rodrigoavie 12y ago

Thank you again, Steven Halim!

jmcgough 12y ago

I've never been able to really grasp an algorithm without seeing a visualization or stepping through it myself - this is awesome ^^

modarts 12y ago

I think merge sort finally 'clicked' for me after watching that animation. This is an incredible learning tool.

feider 12y ago

slow hosting (from singapore?) just killed the possible experience.

iamleppert 12y ago

Awesome! I love it when people do stuff like this!

SIGALRM 12y ago

this is a really cool link, thanks for posting it!

nitishmd 12y ago

Excellent! Thank you. If this code is open sourced may be people can contribute a lot more algorithms!

bargainhunter 12y ago

This is just stunning. Bravo, sir.

stevenhalim 12y ago

Hi all, I am the initiator of this project. You can gave me bug reports or suggestions on how to improve VisuAlgo (and its online quiz mode) via stevenhalim@gmail.com. Me and my team are still actively developing this tool and will update it over time. Question banks for certain topics are not big enough so there is a small probability that you can see two random questions that are the same. This should not be true in the near future. The code is semi open actually (all HTML,CSS,JS files) are on client-side. The only hidden parts (in server-side) are the mechanism to generate random questions and to verify answers automatically and also our graph drawing database :O (you can draw your own graph for DFS/BFS/MST/SSSP/Network Flow/Matching if you haven't notice). Regarding slow host, it should not be the case in general. Yesterday NUS has network issues that slow down the Internet connection campus wide. Normally it is very fast.

pushedx 12y ago
I noticed that you have Google Analytics active on the site. How much traffic did HN push to your site?

alexisn811 12y ago

Holy smokes! This is nifty, I hope the project continues to live on because it really helps me understand complex topics easier.